Subterranean piping systems of the type that are typically installed at service stations are generally utilized to communicate fuel or chemicals between an underground storage tank and an above ground dispensing station. The underground storage tanks and associated piping pose serious potential environmental and fire hazards as the chemicals contained therein could and have in the past leaked into the earth. To limit these potential hazards, secondary containment systems have been developed which generally operate by providing a second wall or jacket around each of the associated tanks and piping. Thus a leak from a primary tank would be prevented from spilling into the earth by the outer sealed jacket. A similar arrangement utilizing a second pipe of a larger diameter encompassing a primary pipe is designed to prevent leakage from pipes from reaching the soil.
With these new containment systems, several piping penetrations are required into the containment sumps either above the tanks or at the dispensing locations. These locations are therefore leak sensitive and prior art attempts at sealing these penetrations have included the use of grommets, bulkhead fittings and flexible entry boots. These prior art devices proved to be somewhat successful in sealing the penetrations, however, they were all installation sensitive and could not be tested without filling the containment system with water.
Not testing the system is no alternative as improperly sealed connections would allow ground water to infiltrate the system setting off alarms in the secondary system and require undue maintenance. In addition, potential contamination of the soil and ground water could occur through undetected leaks in the piping penetrations. Verifying the integrity of the piping penetrations is crucial to providing a reliable system, and therefore the ability to provide pressure testable piping penetrations is a significant advantage of the present invention.